1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to perforation guns that are used in the oil and gas industry to explosively perforate well casing and underground hydrocarbon bearing formations, and more particularly to an improved apparatus for explosively perforating a well casing and its surrounding underground hydrocarbon bearing formation in intersecting perforations.
2. Background
A common method of perforating oil bearing geological formations is by shooting holes through the well casing by means of a special gun that is lowered into the hole. “During the completion of an oil and/or gas well, it is common to perforate the hydrocarbon containing formation with explosive charges to allow inflow of hydrocarbons to the well bore. These charges are loaded in a perforation gun and are typically shaped charges that produce an explosive formed penetrating jet in a chosen direction” U.S. Pat. No. 7,441,601.
The employment of angled shape charge placement to provide intersecting perforations has generated great interest in recent years. See for example, Triple-Jet® Perforating System, a paper by Halliburton, Bersas, et al, Perforation on Target, Oilfield Review, and New practices to Enhance Perforating Results, Oilfield Review. (all included in the information Disclosure material of this application). The intersecting perforation assist in cleaning the debris from the perforated channel and are especially useful where there is crushed or loose material adjacent the well bore where the perforation is to be made and in sand formations.
However there is needed a more reliable and effective tool for effecting angled perforations. The present invention is such a tool.